Saturday, December 23, 2023

While Some Might Not Want Children Working 10 Hour Days in Factories, Child Labor Laws Are Being Enforced in North Carolina, Dec. 23, 1923

Carolina Behind on Child Labor. . . Conditions in Factory Towns of State Are Shocking, Says Report

By the Associated Press

Raleigh, Dec. 22—North Carolina which is said to be behind in caring for its child labor, is not as black as it has been painted, according to an article published in the Public Welfare Progress bulletin of the Christians and public welfare, which has just been issued. The bulletin draws for the source of its article upon Henry F. Pringle, a special correspondent of the New York World, who a few weeks ago visited the state incognito, to investigate conditions in the factory towns as regards child labor.

“Mr. Pringle was agreeably surprised,” according to the article, “at child labor conditions in the State. He thought, it is true, that North Carolina’s child labor law is defective in permitting the 10 hour day, but he found that the law is being enforced with a thoroughness which surprised him, and that child labor is more carefully supervised in North Carolina than in any other Southern state except Alabama, which has an eight hour day.

“Mr. Pringle was impressed with the North Carolina plan whereby the Department of Education and the State board of Health co-operate in enforcing the child labor law by insisting on compulsory school attendance and by giving medical examinations to children before they are allowed to work. He stated that he had seen no violation of the law during the two weeks he inspected a number of cotton mills in Mecklenburg and Gaston counties, and he also spoke of the good attitude of the mill men whom he met while in the State.”

Before coming to North Carolina, according to the article, Mr. Pringle visited a number of states in which child labor conditions are said to be bad.

From page 2 of the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, Dec. 23, 1923

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